The Lost Memory
by talkstoangels77
Summary: *Response to Pinkconchshell's Bouquet Challenge* What if there was more to that first meeting than what we were told of?


**AN**: Okay, this is another answer to Pinkconchshell's bouquet challenge! This one is a bit different, and fleshes out a scene that we really didn't see all that much of...Also, it was partially inspired by the music video for Josh Turner's "Would You Go with Me?" which is a very sweet video. The connection's a bit hard to get...But it has that same sort of innocence to it that I find in the relationship of these two.

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own it...

_Splash!_

The spirit of the Kohaku River was aroused from his usual mid-day nap, startled by the object that had just entered his river. Struggling between simply ignoring the object and going back to sleep, or going after it and removing it from his waters, he sent a bit of his magic out to determine what the object was. Considering the size of the splash, it sounded much bigger than the twigs or leaves which were sometimes carried into his domain by the wind.

Which meant there was a good chance it was probably something some careless human had tossed in. Growling in annoyance, he surged forward to where the object was now beginning to float away in the current. As he swam towards it, the magic he had sent out came back to him, telling him that the object that had disturbed his rest was a little, pink…

Shoe?

Well, it was certainly a human thing, though not the usual kind of thing that they threw into his river. He continued on his way, moving forward to the object in order to get rid of it. He was nearly upon it when-

_Splash!_

Something else, far larger than a shoe, fell into the water beside him. It took him a moment to grasp the fact that it was a human, albeit a rather small one. He wondered for a minute what a human was doing falling into his waters, before he noticed the shoe on one of her feet. '_Ah, so that's what happened.' _he thought, realizing that apparently, this human had somehow lost its shoe in the river, than attempted to get it back, consequently ending up in the water.

He swam beneath the human, catching her (for he assumed the pink shoes meant it was a female) on top of him as she started to sink. Raising his head above the surface in order to give the human some air, he realized the bank at this point was too high for him to remove the small human without drawing any attention to himself.

He lowered his head back into the water, hoping the girl had gotten enough air and would be all right until it was safe for him to place her on the bank. The spirit swam forward, searching for a place out of sight of the humans to leave the river and put the human back on shore. He had just spotted a suitable place when he felt the human's hands, which had been gripping his horns up to this point, start to loosen. He raced forward, knowing that it was a sign she was running out of air.

He reached the shore just as she stared to fall backwards, then turned around and caught her in his front claws. He set her upon the ground, then pondered what he should do next. He was interrupted when the girl started coughing as a bit of water was ejected from her mouth.

'_I can't let her see me like this!'_ He realized, knowing that it wouldn't be good if she was able to see him in his dragon form, but also that he needed to ensure that she was alright. Summoning his magic once more, he shifted into the human form he sometimes found it necessary to take.

When he was finished, he noticed the human girl was now breathing steadily and attempting to sit up. "Are you okay?" he asked, extending a hand to help her up.

However, she ignored it, and burst into tears instead. He watched as she brought her hands up to her eyes, rubbing them as water dripped down her face. Crouching down, he repeated his question.

"No!" She wailed, her mouth scrunching up. "I lo-ost my shoe, a-and I almost d-drowned, and I'm all we-we-wet!" Her speech was interrupted multiple times by heavy breathing, but it was at least understandable.

"Umm…." He looked around, trying to find a way to calm her down. '_This would work better if I had some idea of what humans liked…or if I was allowed to use magic in front of humans_.' He suddenly noticed some flowers growing a few feet behind the girl. Human females liked that sort of thing, he remembered, or at least that was how it seemed whenever he saw one receiving them(Not that he did so all that often, but sometimes they were interesting to observe).

Rising up, he quickly moved over to the flowers, and reaching down, snapped a few stalks off. Grasping them in one hand, he ran back to where the girl was and thrust them out towards her. "Here." He muttered, unsure if this would work.

Thankfully, it seemed to. At least, the tears stopped, though her breathing was still rapid, and her words were still stuttered. "Are those fo-for me?"

"Yes." He nodded in affirmation.

"Wow," Her breathing finally seemed back to normal. "Nobody's ever given me flowers before. What's your name? How'd you get here? Did you see how I got out of the river? It was so weird, I thought I saw a dragon for a second….I wonder if it was real? Did you see it?"

"Chihiro!" The girl turned towards the voice. '_So, that's her name…Chihiro…'_

He was saved from answering her by the sudden shout. It sounded like an older male, and the river spirit knew that it was time for him to go. However, the human apparently had other ideas. "That's my dad!" She told him excitedly, grabbing on the sleeve of his shirt and trying to pull him along with her. "Come on, he's looking for me!"

He immediately grounded himself. "I can't." He said, crouching down so he was eye level with her once more.

Confusion filled her features. "Why not?"

He felt strangely guilty over the action he was about to take. "Because, I don't exist here." He answered, simultaneously casting a spell to make her forget this encounter as he stepped backwards into the water.

"What do you…" She trailed off as the spell took effect, blinking a few times as if she had something in her eyes.

"Chihiro!" It was that man's voice again. It was soon joined by a woman's, which expressed the same worry the male's did.

"What were you thinking? We were so worried about you!" The woman's voice exclaimed as she and the man came into view.

The girl shrunk in upon herself a little. "I'm sorry. It's just, my shoe fell in the water and I wanted to get it back…My shoe! Where is it?"

'_Oops… I forgot about that…'_ The spirit thought from where it was watching the scene beneath the waves. Scanning the area around him, he spotted the shoe not too far away, though it was heading away from where he placed the girl. Slipping back into his dragon form, he used his tail to gently push the shoe back towards the shore.

"My shoe!" He heard the little human call out as it reached the shoreline.

He watched as she and her parents left the riverbank, feeling somewhat regretful over the fact that no matter how precious this innocent encounter was to him, to her, it would remain as nothing more than a lost memory.

**Review please...**


End file.
